About "Me"

Ahem, Me is in the prime of life. Me holds a PhD and is trying to be jobless. Me masquerades the time spent on the net as doing research in Artificial Intelligence. Me desists from praising 'myself', so I won't proceed further :D ...

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Applying to US universities for MS/Phd is like one of the most irritating things around. The whole process is totally convoluted and brazenly costly. Reporting the Gre Toefl scores tops it all. Sop, they want a statement of purpose. All Sops start in the same general way about how the field interests them, how it is an important research area, the experience they have and other related stuff, how this university is ideal for them and how they plan to be enriched by it. All of them are the same. So i tried this one differently. But am wise enough not to send it and waste my 100$ that is spent on the application proces to a single university. I do not have access to the different introduction right now otherwise would have posted it here. Other things that add to the burgeoning frustration level is the fast approaching deadlines, still not having hold of all the required documents, fyp deadlines and reports which have to be written though i have done nothing at all and the job-placement process in which i am performing at the very worst. Ofcourse, doing no preparation whatsoever does contribute, but nevertheless, i still seem to suck at them. But how does it matter? I dont think i would want to go for a job now anyway. But then, am i sure about doing phd? Not at all, but it certainly seems as the better option. I thought i was now beyond supervising and explaining projects as the 22 credits i mentored last sem have ended. But no. Some enterprising second years wanted a project under Dr. Pjn and what does he suggest? Our itws3 project .. right out of the blue? How come he even remembers it?? So, had to dust the project out of the archives, make it run all over again and then explain it to them after recollecting what it was.And, there are few other things which contribute generously to frustration.

My gmail id is quite a popular one. I recieve very fews mails meant for me. I have been blessed with mails containing some assignment some student of some forsaken institute wanted to send to some lecturer of his/her, a lot of offers from companies asking for my resume, the latest ones being from Cognizant, a mail from Microsoft Technical Recruiter giving me his email in continuation of our previous day conversation on phone. And today, i got a mail from some poor soul requesting me to find him a job in some bpo. I wished him all the best :).

Someone search for profs in the universities and send them mails.Someone finish my sop and fill the application forms.Someone collect the recos and transcripts and post them.Someone mail those researchers for the papers and read the papers and write the report.Someone give me a long vacation that i have deserved for sooo long.Someone give me a good reason to feel like waking up the next day....

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

And this time the focus is 7. And have been tagged by 2 people - Rao and Khurana. However, this one is quite tougher. Anyways, lets face the challenge ...

Seven Things I want to do in my life:

1. Travel around the world and maybe beyond 8->2. Be rich and renowned 8->3. Start a hugely successful company ...4. Drive the best convertible around :D5. Live in a lot of countries (should atleast cover all continents even antartica!)6. Fund a help organisation and see that it does its work honestly7. Write a novel ..8. Maintain a library in my house :D More than 7? so what? A lot more havent been mentioned for scarcity of space and time

Seven Things I can do:

1. Blog2. Write about any topic (even if i have no idea about it)3. Act as if i have understood everything even when i have no idea what was said4. Survive a day or two without any food5. Keep chatting and chatting ...6. Keep secrets .. :D7. Write computer programs i.e programming .. (almost forgot :D)

Seven Things I say the most:

1. hmm2. really?3. chaa4. crap5. sucks6. what rubbish7. cool (am not sure about the veracity of these answers .. the people around may know better)

Seven Things I can't do:

1. Not blush when being teased (tried a lot)2. Play any game well (didnt try that much :D)3. Stay away from checking mail ever so often4. Feel comfortable when with new acquaintances5. See (without my spects i mean)6. Not use smileys when using the keyboard :D7. Stay awake in classes (:|

Was supposed to have been a cool MSBR i.e dual degree student. After the success of the honours project, was looking around for a challenging topic. The semester was quite busy and was lost in a great many things ... though at hindsight, cant identify what exactly kept me busy :-s. Yeah, wrote Gre, searched for good universities to apply to. But was supposed to have been doing MS right? Yeah, it all depended whether I got through or not. Looked around when people around me slogged for deciding their FYPs and then later for writing their FYP report1. One fine day, get a mail from your advisor asking to meet him. He informs you coolly that you are no longer a research student, but a Btech final year like most of the others (fired?) and that you better buck up and start submitting Fyp reports from the next deadline. In shock, initially, quickly recover and start searching for an Fyp.

So, listen to the ideas, try to understand what exactly is required. Feel that most of the suggestions are impossible to be accomplished (atleast in the limited time available). Just in time, for the first report (second for the others), the topic is decided. But the topic is so vast that there have been conferences conducted specifically on it! What exactly is supposed to be done? No clear idea at all ... Slog around the papers sometimes, talk to the experienced and try to make sense of what my Fyp is supposed to be. After lot of contemplation and great many discussions, the position wasnt any better. Approaching the next deadline soon. And today, found out that the atleast the first part of my Fyp is to find a suitable topic. Find out all that has been done in the area, the technologies, the challenges tackled and those that havent been tackled and those that havent yet been discovered. In short a survey .... and later what? We shall see ....

Friday, November 25, 2005

Lots of things going on as usual. As usual, i have some very tough deadlines to meet. As usual, i have brought this condition unto myself through the fine art of procrastination. :-sAm supposed to write my 'statement of purpose' soon. Actually am supposed to have already written it by now. Most of my peers are atleast half way done. And, i have been waiting all this time for some kind of an inspiration and then hoped to do it quickly like say in a day after which just some minor editing would be needed. Sadly, the inspiration has been as elusive as ever. Or maybe the 'inspiration' is the approaching deadline?? When i asked our sage for advice, he replies as: "Answer one question - what do you want to see yourself as in the future?". Well, as i have oft said, the answer is "I dont know". I rather believe in taking life one step at a time. Did i even think of going in for further studies when i joined IIIT? Not at all. I had no idea what i wanted to do next. Same now. All i know is that i was to post graduate doing some research in the field of AI preferably agents (as i am acquainted with that). Guess, thats where the whole problem lies in. However, most of the 'Statement ofPurpose' or Sop is generally devoted to your past achievements and academic pursuits.

Theres the other thing too, placements .. jobs. Supposed to select 3 dream companies. My dream companies? Unless i know the kind of work i would have to be doing in them, i have no criteria on which to decide my 'dream' company. Ofcourse the pay package is always a major factor :D. My fyp? Its in the doldrums ... waiting and waiting ... when will it progress?? Nothing seems to going right or rather going at all. Even the choice for an open elective does not seem to be easily settled. But, that doesnt have any space in my thoughts right now .... :-s :-?

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Well, yeah i have been to and back from kolkatta. This post is not about the trip. That is going to make a nice story with all the regular elements of drama like suffering, disappointment, frustration, elation and exhaustion. The exhausting post about the trip will be written rather typed later. Yeah, it needs considerable amount of patience and energy. "It is a thrilling tale, I wish to do it justice." by Dumbledore is quite applicable here. Finally started reading the sixth book of the hari-puttar series. Thought i had the time but sadly i was mistaken. Yet, once started, guess it will be completed quite quickly.

The Brother of Agastya aka the Sage has been stalking the corridors of our hostel to collect monetary contribution to the Kashmir quake fund. I admire his perseverence and determination. He spent around 5 hours, met around 150 people and collected significant amount. No idea how he can spare so much time for this. It is being discussed by people as to whether it is prudent to contribute to Pakistan and whether the money may not finally end up financing the terrorists of the like who recently bombed delhi etc. My take on this, .......... no idea. I guess I would feel more confortable if i knew where the money is going and how it would be used. Though, the question i ask is, "Is a disaster a prerequisite to do some charity?" There are needy people all around our city, state and country and abroad. Yeah, the people affected by a disaster need help since, their lives have been considerably worsened by the incident. But what about the people whose lives are in the same kind of state without even having to face a calamity? They are much much more in number and are always in need of help. Charity should be a continuous process and not a one off event that succeeds every large scale disaster. Guess, our IIIT's 'muskaan' is a great endeavour. We should expand this activity so that it touches many more lives. Enough of preaching for today :D.

Have so many things to do in the coming days that i am forced to keep a todo list. A todo list which tells me what are all the things that are yet to be done as quickly as possible. Yeah, just added 'write the acm post' to the list. I have had two small figurines on my table since first year. One is a cute Laughing-Buddha and the other a tiny statue of Lord Ganesha. No idea why they have been with me. Never been a religious person. Dont even remember the last time i was taken to a temple. I dont think i ever went to one on my own accord. I just recollected when i last went to a temple. It was in Kyoto. Went to a lot of temples that day.Time to get back to the non-muggle world. Bye for now, my friendly muggles.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

In a few hours, i would be in a train bound for calc... kolkatta. 26 hours is going to be a very long journey :-s. After a presentation which was mostly blank slides sparsely populated with characters. A presentation that got over as soon as it started ..I will blog when i am backLets hope the best for acm

Friday, October 14, 2005

and its 5 in the morning. Guess its a nice time to write a post. Blogs are making their presence felt in a very big way. The war that is going on. The spamming of comments that is a regular feature now.... Yep, had to select the image recognition thing for allowing comments. The best way to stop any stupid bot from marring my blog by their idiotic and standard phrases. However, the question that rises is, what would happen when optical character recognition or Ocr is developed enough to port it onto such spam programs? How then to differentiate man from program? Guess, these procedures will also be advanced by then.Got 'lost' in Lost recently. It is quite gripping. And the script writers play around with the story. It gets so frustrating sometimes :D. Have a supposedly important exam in 3 days. Dont even have an idea of how it generally is. And i had to pay 6K for this exam !! Why am i doing it? At the same time i am also attempting to do something else which may(small chance) turn out to be quite useful. But mainly i have been getting lost.

Blogging is becoming such an important phenomenon. People are losing jobs because of it. People are getting employment out of it. The major pastime for a whole lot of people. Blogworld(the word Blog-o-sphere somehow sounds really bad) is the place where people are writing their opinions about everything under and above the sun. The posts may be on political issues, international issues and ofcourse lots of personal issues. It is being read by huge numbers as well. And here i am, rambling randomly about various things. I guess mainstream is not where i am supposed to be :)

"you are one who understood me the most in our campus " - quite a nice complement to get eh? :D.

Friday, October 07, 2005

... and i havent gone to bed yet. This is no anomaly but my daily schedule these days. Got to get back to IST soon. Lots of work to do. Actually, am in such a state of confusion that i am not doing anything. The work has increased so much that i no longer even attempt to recollect what all i was supposed to have completed. Long time that i read a book either. Long time i did anything useful either.

The servile eye of the puzzled mindcasts sights high on the futuritytries to decipher and findthe crypts of posterity

In desirous of changeyet unsure of what.All the decisions hingeon what is to be sought

Look forlornly at those happy facesthat are free from the dilemmasThey wear their shoes, tie their lacesgo home and go to classes.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Long time, i have posted. Hence i am ending the drought with this post which was to have come a long long time back. And it is going to be a long long post. So brace yourselvses.

22nd July '05. It was a friday They had already spent 10 days in the this country. And barely survived. But enjoyed immensely. At 6 in the morning, the bus left them at Tokyo central station (called onomabashi or something). That bus which carried them from Nagoya had just six people in it. These three, the driver and two more passengers. Why did they prefer this night journey in the bus, when lots of bullet trains, JR trains etc were all available? Because, they neednt search for a place to sleep in Nagoya :D. The three indians trudged their way to the subway, trying to find the way using the minimal signs and their recently gained knowledge of how the subways are arranged. Finally go down to the subway. Now, they need to find out which station they need to go to reach their hotel. After they obtain the information and the map which is like indispensible for travel, they set out on yet another subway journey which would most probably not last more than 10 minutes. Yeah, they also buy that 'one day pass' which ensures that they can take any subway till midnight to anywhere without any hassles.

At the destination Karteek and Ravi Sha leave the luggage with Rama and go to the station incharge to find out which exit they need to take to go to their hotel. The subways have lots of exits each one opening out to a different direction. Rama waits there on the platform. A train comes and goes. Another comes and goes. Every minute a train comes and goes. Same thing is repeated over on the opposite platform. Same thing is repeated over every other subway platform in Tokyo and Osaka, Nagoya and other such big cities. Having vouched by the subways for the past 10 days, he was no longer captured by them. And was getting mighty bored. The guards change. The new guard at first ignores him. After like half an hour, he starts eyeing him. Rama feared that he may be approached by the guard and then he will have to explain to him using mostly gestures, what he is doing with all those suitcases. But the guard didnt and finally Kar and Sha did come back. They had apparently made a long search expedition for the hotel which they finally found to be on the 18th floor of the same building under which the subway station is. The part which hindered their progress was to reach that 18th floor as they simply got lost in the myriad pathways that lead out of the subway.

They slogged with the luggage to the hotel which is called, Tokyo Internation Youth Hostel. They imagined that it will be much better than their hotel in Osaka which was mysteriously called Raizon and was very cheap compared to this one. It wasnt 8am yet. The three indians enter the 'hostel'. It looked good. The reception guy as expected tells them that they cant check in until 3pm. Their plan was to put the luggage in hotel and go shopping. So they deposit the luggage in the luggage room, fresh up and go to the 'mess' for breakfast. However, things didnt seem as bright as they ought to be. The two computers at the place were pay and use. They had a computer and free internet in their previous hotel, the Raizon. Yeah, it had to be shared with the rest of the hotel residents which would be like 200, nevertheless, it was free. This one was charging exhorbitant rates. Thankfully, bread was available for breakfast along with other unknown stuff. After replenishing themselves, they set out to explore one of the biggest and most well known cities in the world.

The First stop was Akihabara - "electronic district". The place where you will find the maximum number of tourists in Japan. The place where you will find the maximum number of Japanese who can speak English. The place where you have sign boards in English also. The place where you can trade in US Dollars(Its possible in other places also though). The place where you will get duty-free electronic goods. They explored it for many hours. They had to buy possibly two dig cams, an ipod, usb sticks, head phones etc etc. Then they go into an AM-PM shop which is basically a 24 hour super market kind of shop is found in Hyd, and buy some sealed meals. The selection is done solely on basis of how the food looks because they know they can never hope to find out the ingredients. The experience of the past has taught them that liquidish foods i.e foods with gravy or soup should be avoided at any cost. They retrace their path on the subway and reach the 'hostel' by 2:30pm. They are greeted with the board - "Closed for cleaning, Please come at 3". So they wait at the entrance carrying the food which is becoming cold and loosing whatever taste it may have. A pair of western girls also come in with their bags. They too are taken aback as the indians were at the notice board and they too sit and wait. Finally its 3, and the Japs true to their time, open the door. The indians check in, show passports, pay bills and are shown to their room. A single room with four beds. Bunk beds. But an awesome view. View of the Tokyo skyscrapers. They were just settling down, when an old Japanese man enters the room. Apparently he is the one who will occupy the fourth bed. He greets them, learns of their origins and remarks that he hadbeen to India some 20 years back. He knows hyderabad, even knows HCU :D. Rama scrutinises the rules page and many evils of the hostel reveal themselves. All occupants are supposed to get out of the hostel before 10 in the morning and not return before 3. Doors close at 10:30pm and lights out at 11(what that meant, they would soon find out). Many other such rules and restrictions. It was not a nice place to stay. They had only one day reservation and were planningto extend it to the next day also (saturday). The return flight was on sunday morning. But the picture that the rule book presented made the chances of staying another day here quite bleak. After the ablutions they go out to visit the 'Tokyo Tower'. Something that was built on the lines of the Eiffel Tower. (Didnt know this connection between Paris and Tokyo, two of the favourite cities of my childhood). After subwaying and walking for some considerable time, they reached the place. It was nearly empty. A place which was considered a landmark for the city. The trip was deemed disappointing. Returned to the hostel after consuming burgers at Mc Donalds. (Thankyou Mac for helping them survive. The burgers and fries had been the staple diet for the stay till then.)

Back in the hostel room, they were making plans for the next day, where to visit and so on when the lights went out!! Yeah it was 11! All the rooms had their lights switched off by the administration. This was the last straw and they dropped all plans to stay at the place another day. Though they had no idea where they would spend the saturday night. The older Japanese man was already asleep. Sha too retired to bed. Rama and Karteek werent so keen. They went to the mess to drink water. Saw in the lobby that an western girl was working on her laptop. Kar remarked that she was using net as he saw Hotmail or some such website. That would be cool they thought. Wireless lan. And they were in possession of a laptop, the laptop of the Wireless Team of IIIT! So Rama ventured out and asked her whether she could connect to the net. She replied in affirmative. Wireless! Glad and excited, they brought their laptop and tried to connect. In vain. By this time, that girl was asleep on the sofa in the lobby with all her luggage beside her. What was her story? The two were trying pretty hardwith no success. A man? was shouting loudly into his cell phone at the other end of the lobby. After one of his particularly high decibal outburst, the girl woke up and the these two guys asked her how she could connect. She said automatically! She tried with their laptop but it couldnt connect. Hers was apparently Apple-Mac. She too gave up and suggested that they pluck the lan wire from those paid-computers which no one was using currently. Before, they could reply, she plucked in out and put it to their laptop. They were configuring the IP, when suddenly an old Jap man barges in shouting. What he was saying couldnot be deciphered by anyone of the three but it was apparent that he was admonishing them for having taken the lan connection. He did not stop his tirade and was in no mood to listen to anything. She tried to explain something to him, but to no avail. They set the lan wire back, tried to explain something and finally he left still making noises. How did he come to know? There were cameras everywhere but you dont expect him to be watching them all, all the time. Or was that connection to the server? Didnt seem likely. Yet, he was there in an instant. And he was pretty rude and pretty loud. The first rude Japanese to be encountered by the them. Rama and Karteek conversed with the girl and were informed that she is sleeping here in the lobby because she has to catch a flight early morning, she wasnt sure she would wake up, if she slept in her room, hence she packed everything and is ready to leave from the lobby itself. Thenshe started her complaints. The begining was with choicest abuses for the guy who had just come. Then she started castigating the administration for their lack of sensitivity. They refused to let her leave before 6:30 in the morning despite her having a plane to catch. Hence, she was quite unsure if she could make it to the airport on time. She then complained against the loud guy(it was tough to classify him as a guy, anyone could mistake him for a girl, only his voice refuted the assumption) who made it difficult for her to sleep. She advised them to move out of the next day itself as they too had a flight in the morning and these people wouldnt allow them to check early enough. They were innumerable other reasons also though. She was an american who majored in political science, had come to Japan to visit friends and was on her way to South Korea where she got a job as an English teacher. When Rama remarked that they were Indians, she said she kinda figured it out :D. She had never heard of robocup (expectedly) but was impressed by the idea. They left her to her travails and went back to room to sleep and regroup whatever energies were left to spend their last day in Japan.

And so it turned to be the saturday. They woke up and rushed to vacate their rooms. They checked out, but the hostel incharge permitted them to keep the luggage in the store room. The indians had decided to come back in the evening, collect the luggage and go the the airport at night itself. Spend the final night on foriegn land in the airport, hopefully in some room or if fate did not permit, then in some lounge. So they were on the streets by 9. They ended up back at the electronic district. They had bought the dig cams however Karteek had finally decided that he would also buy the ipod. They feasted in Mc Donaldsyet again and spent the whole morning shopping. One salesman in one shop had already started recognising them. They also encountered many indians. Some shopping, some selling. I guess the indians were employed mainly because of their ability to speak English. Soon, it was afternoon and it was time for another tourist trip. They also had to find out how to reach the airport in the night. So they made their way to this particular station from where some trains are supposed to leave for Narita (the airport). After searching and getting lost, they finally found that the station they wanted was not that one. The saving grace was that there was a big tourist spot nearby. It had the science museums, zoos, art museums and many such establishments. The science museum was written about in glowing terms in many tourist guides.

The three of them had a peculiar cloud following them whereever they went in Japan. All the places that they went without obtaining all the information about it were closed. They went to a castle on a tuesday and it was closed. Apparently that particular castle is closed on tuesdays. This phenomenon was repeated in many instances. And the cloud hadnt left them in Tokyo either. After another bout of searching and map reading they ended up at the museum at 4:30pm. You may wonder why they always search and use maps while they can easily ask anyone for information. You are mistaken. They cannot 'easily' ask anyone forinformation. First of all, they would need to find an English speaking Japanese who come in miniscule numbers. Next that person should have the requisite knowledge of both what they are asking and he should also have the capacity to understand their accent and words. Finally he should also have sufficient vocabulary to reply to their queries. Such Japs are really rare. Getting back to the museum trip, it was 4:30. They paced to the entrance and just then the board was placed, right in front of their eyes, "Closed". Obviously the museum closes at 4:30pm. Relieved that their faithful cloud hasnt left their side, they sat in lawn outside the museum. Many people were there, some sleeping, some enjoying a quiet evening with a book, some watching their kids playing, some playing with their kids. The whole area was a big garden sort of thing interspersed with museums and other buildings.

Then the fun began. The three of them were relaxing on a concrete bench, when suddenly the ground began to shake. Is this the famed Japan Earthquake? They also heard the sound of a train from beneath the ground, apparently the subway. Is this shaking being achieved by the train below? If that is the case than this really the worst example of engineering because the ground was shaking vigorously. They looked around at others in alarm. No one else seemed to have noticed anything amiss. The guy who was sleeping was still sleeping. The girl reading the book continued to be immersed in it. The kids playing did not stop playing. Nothing was wrong. So they concluded it must have been some engineering fault and quite normal and definately not an earthquake. But they did feel that earth quaking, so the doubt strongly remained as to what it was. They made their way to the other museums and even the zoo and all had been closed just then. Now, they had another agenda. That of eating Sushi! But where will they find it? Only way of knowing is to ask someone. But who? Most of the people around didnt seem approachable. In other words didnt look as if they knew english. On their way back, they stopped to buy some watches and asked that salesperson for sushi. She directed them some market. They walked over there and asked around but apparently none of the restaurants there served the delicacy. Finally, they returned to the shopping district with a Sushi dinner hovering in their minds. They didnt have much of an idea of what it was. Rama faintly knew that it got something to do with raw fish on rice. Karteek and Sha heard that it was a popular dish but were not aware of its secrets.

Back at the Akihabara, they completed the remaining shopping, Rama bought headphones for boar from an Indian shop. It was 8pm. They had to return to that hostel quickly, take the luggage and go to airport. But they also had to taste sushi. So they started asking around again. Finally they ended up at an restaurant which specialises Sushi. And the only person who knew English there was the cook :d. He told them that sushi comes in various kinds like fish, prawn and meat. They asked for one plate with a combination of fish and prawn. And so the dish was put in front of them. It was worse than what Rama could imagine. Dumplings of rice on which rested clean fish pieces and cleaned prawn. The prawns werent even deshelled, leave alone cooked. The fish pieces were free from scales thankfully but they seemed as raw as possible. The indians gingerly tasted the most popular Japanese dish. It sucked big time. Karteek remarked thatit seemed too raw. Sha agreed. They had already experienced partially cooked stuff which were passed around as food by the Japs but not something as raw and bland as this. Rama took one bite and it was so revolting that he refused to take another. Karteek unaware that it was actually totally raw, consumed mostof the stuff. He was also the prime proponent of this Sushi eating mission. After the culinary adventure, they returned to hostel through the subway.

While they were collecting their luggage from the hostel, their told their problem to the hostel guy. He then added to their woes by informing them that the airport closes at 12 and they need to reach it before then. Apparently all public transport systems also stop at midnight. The three indians rushed carrying their heavy luggage through the subway lines and finally reached that private train line's station. After searching they went to the platform where the train to the airport is supposed to start. But they were informed that Narita train is in another platform. So they rushed to that one. The only train on that platform was filled to the brim. People were spilling out from it. There was no way that they could enter that train especially with allthe luggage. They asked the nearby railway officials if another train to Narita would come soon. The official gesticulated and explained at length, something in Japanese. Theonly words that could be deciphered were, Narita, No, Earthquake. Another official came to rescue, he had better command over the language. But all that he managed to convey to them was that there is no direct to train to the airport, the train that starts from here ends at a station called 'Auto' from where another train can be taken to Narita. But that other train may also not go to the Airport. They wre flabbergasted. However they boarded the next train and reached Auto. It could easily have been one of their most crowded journeys in life. At Auto, they had no space to stand in the platform. It was bristling with people. The people made queues to enter the train that is yet to come. The train that would take the passengers some more closer to Narita.

The poor iiitians couldnt figure out what was going on. As they stood clueless waiting for a train which would take them to a destination unknown, they were approached by a middle aged lady. She asked them in easy english, where they wanted to go. They informed her of the whole situation. She told them that notrain can reach Narita Airport as all railway lines just before it have been closed for inspection. Inspection to check the tracks after the earthquake in the evening, an magnitude of 6 on the richter scale! Imagine the shock to the poor indians who had concluded that it was not an earthquake since no one seemed alarmed. She also told them that they could at max reach Narita town. And that the train about to come would take them to some station from where they will need to board another one for Narita. She also advised them to get to the front of that queue as quickly as they could. The train came and almost all thepeople on the platform stuffed themselves into it. She too went away with the crowd. These three couldnt follow the same procedure as they also had the luggage to take. So they waited for the next train. The platform which was formerly brimming with people now hardly had any souls. The next train soon came their way and they boarded it with a small glimmer of hope but mostly with a fear of forthcoming tribulations. The train stopped at the next station and presently the lady who had helped them earlier entered the compartment. She apologised to them saying that she had provided incorrect information as to which station they should be changing trains and now supplied them with a new name. She also continued to travel with them. The time was around 10:30. After some time, the train stoppoed at a station for some considerable amount of time. Then there was an announcement and the lady gladly informed these people that the train on the other side of the platform would take them to Narita. They picked up the luggage and made their way to the train which would constitute their final train journey in this Japan trip. A trip which mainly involved travelling around in trains. This train was also quite crowded. The lady also accompanied them. She stated that her destination comes on the way. The journey seemed interminable. Around midnight, the lady bid good bye and left at her station. She had helped them without any asking, left her train and boarded a later train so that she could guide them properly. Before leaving she also wrote two notes in Japanese and gave them asking them to show it to the police or station officials in case they are unable to reach the airport. This was the trailer of the Japanese hospitality that the Indians would experience on that day.

After another half an hour, the train came to its final stop - Narita town. They got down and enquired if there is any transport to the airport. They were informed that this was the last train of the day and the services wouldnt start until morning. Then they showed the slips of paper to the officials. Apparently she had written requesting the officials to find them a place to stay for the night. That guy made some calls and then informed in that same broken english that no place is available. Outside the station, some passengers had made a queue for the taxis. The indians too joined it. While Rama was waiting in the queue, Sha and Karteek went to call the airport to see if they are still open. The final straw on their back fell, when they learnt that not only was the airport closed but even the hotel outside the airport was also completely booked and there is not place to stay anywhere. While Sha and Karteek were listening to this as if it were death sentences, Rama was accosted by another Japanese stranger. He asked in perfect english whether they were having some problem. Rama informed him that they had a flight in the morning and so set out to go to the airport at night, but due to the cancellation of the trains they were stranded. Then the stranger told Rama that he noticed the worry on their faces and hence decided to enquire as he knew how tough it is to manage here without knowing the language. By then, Karteek and Sha had joined them. He continued his story saying that due to the earthquake, it had taken him eight hours to get back to his town (Narita) from the place where he went to visit his dentist. His wife and children had left for their granny's place that day and hence he is alone in his house. He then asked them to spend the night in his home and that he would drop them off at the airport early in the morning. All three of them looked at each others faces. Before they replied, he said it would be no trouble for him at all, and asked them to come to the other side of the station. He took them to the other side of the station where there was light, and an AM-PM shop and asked them to wait there, while he would go home and get his car to pick them up and take them to his home. He enquired whether they were hungry. They had not eaten anything except that sushi, hence they were actually very hungry. But they said no. Yet, lending a deaf ear to the refusals he took Rama to the AM-PM shop and asked him to buy whatever he and his friends would prefer. He bought some foodstuffs for himself. Since Rama did not attempt to select anything, he selected some lemon teas for the three of them. He left them saying that he would be back with his car in less than half an hour to take us. He also promised to check out whether the only indian restaurant in town, "Namaste" owned by his friend Ajay was open.

Then there was the dilemma. Should they actually go with him? All his actions had raised doubts in the three minds as to whether he was genuine or had some evil plan. Why would anyone spend more than a 1000 Yen and buy you teas to drink. Why would anyone offer 3 foreigners a place to stay at 1:30 in the night. Why would anyone offer to walk back to their home which would take around 15 minutes and then bring a car to take you. Either he had to be an exceptionally kind person or a person with nefarious designs. This place where they were currently, had a small park sort of thing with benches and they could easily spend the remaining few hours there until morning. So they debated whether or not they should accept his offer, if and when he comes back with his car. The debate raged between the three as to whether they should accept the offer. Sha the leader ordered the other two to be quite cautious and careful if in case they were to go with the guy. Before the discussion could conclude, the man returned in his car (which exactly fit his description earlier) and ask them to load their luggage. Once again, they tried to convince him that they wouldnt like to trouble him and would spend whatever was left of the night outside. But he would have none of it. He also said that he had seen a harrassed indian couple in the train. They couldnt understand what was going on, they couldnt follow the announcements etc and felt sad that he couldnt help them. So, now he got a chance and he wouldnt lose it. He also apologetically told them that the "Namaste" restaurant was closed. Finally all four of them sat in the car to go to the house of this seemingly good samaritan.

He took them to his house. On the way, he described his two young children and told some anecdotes about his Indian friend Ajay, the one who set up the 'Namaste' restaurant. His house was on the ground floor of an apartment. They were still skeptical of the person. But as they entered the house, all their doubts were laid to rest as the house looked exactly as the home of a family with two young children should look. They noticed the kid's cycle, the crayon paintings hanging on the walls etc. He apologised for the untidiness of his house. All these actions were making them more uncomfortable. They should be thanking him profusely for helping them in such a dire situation, but he is thanking them for having agreed to come to his house. He offered them some fruits and buns. He also showed them a computer which they could use if they wanted. All three of them took turns to check mail and send mails to their family and friends that soon they would be in their midst. Meanwhile, the good stranger learnt of the purpose of the indians visit to Japan. He then told that he had a real estate business. Rama asked him how come he spoke such good english to which he replied that he had stayed in Guam (US territory in the pacific) for 10 years. He also told them of his plans to shift to California since his business was not doing well. Finally around 3, they decide to sleep. He shows them the 'tatami' room to rest and retires to his bed. At 6 in the morning, all are awake. The three indians because they need to get ready to go to the airport. The Japanese guy because he has to drop them there. They thank the Japanese guy and as a token of gratitude present him with a poster that they had collected. It has a goddess picture and celebration of india written in it in Japanese. He drops them at the famed Narita Airport at 7 in the morning. They were well in time for 10 o clock flight.

Whew! Finally its over. This post would hold the record of being my longest post for quite some time. It has 4969 words. Thats as good as a short story. But then, isnt it?

ps - I dont have the patience or energy to proof read this thing. Any errors if pointed out will be dealt with. Until then, bear with the language. :P

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

I am blogging after a long time and i am blogging at night after a longer time. Much has happened and quite a lot will continue to happen. After gaining experience of giving interviews :D and observing a press conference from close quarters and recollecting past experiences, i have a few ..umm observations. Most of the news reported about general people (i.e who arent known to the world) may not accurate. The problem is that, they are given some set of names, and they take pics of that set of people, but they have problem in associating who is who in the photograph since they havent noted it down anywhere. The photographers would ask you to act normal i.e talk with the others, type the keyboard etc etc because they want to take some 'shots'. Also i have a conjecture that some agency attends the press conference and takes photographs and then supplies those to the individual newspapers. They take different kinds of photos and supply each newspaper with a distinct type. I know i am not being clear at all but its 4 o clock now, nearing to 24 hours since i woke up, so dont expect much lucidity.

I am now a project guide to 8 people. That translates to 22 credits!! And i dont even have a project of my own :(. Have been postponing a lot of work since a lot of days. So much that now i dont even remember all the things i was supposed to have done ... So what do i do now? Runaway ... exactly. I dont like this post. And i am bored of everything.

What do you do if you do not think that you have accomplished the task any better than expected (actually worse) but people all around you are congratulating you? Smile and say thankyou :). Because this makes you realise that you could have easily performed much worse ....

Friday, September 02, 2005

International Institute of Information Technology. When I first heard this name, i felt it was funny. To give such an institute an international tag just to retain the epithet 'IIIT' some how did not sound normal. The first time i came here and noticed the manicured shrubs adorning the roads, I felt that the institute was projecting an air of artficiality. The first time I looked at my hostel, I was enamoured by its shape, spaciousness and ventilation. Thus began a wonderful journey.

IIIT. What do IIITians think of it? Its like asking what do Indians think about India. Can it be described in 700 words? No way. Similarly, I dont even want to attempt to describe what IIIT means to me. In that case, what are these paragraphs about? They will just give an idea of the average IIITian's life and how IIIT has depicts different meanings on different ocassions.

In the morning, the IIITian wakes up, unconsciously lumbers upto the pc and checks mail. Then brushes the teeth and freshens up. His stomach then cries out in hunger. So he uses the pc to check in which mess he is supposed to nurish his body. After that, He is all ready to go to class. He is taught some stuff using slides projected onto a white screen. Does not note down anything much, as the slides will anyway be put up on the site. Assignment time. Completes the assignment which could be a program or textual answers and then uploads it on some portal before midnight. At the end of that hard day, relaxes by playing some game or watching some movie on the pc. IIIT is about living with computers.

Let us see what happens in a typical academic year. Mid July, its the start of the semester and the end of the summer holidays. For most first years that would mean a change, but not much difference for the other batches who have been staying on campus itself throughout the summer. Registration time and most students are in a dilemma. A wide array of courses to choose from. IIIT is about choice.

A few months into the year, some competitions are held. Generally, a participant would know all other participants personally. Some win prizes. Many are noticed. Thus, living in IIIT is also about being recognised and appreciated.

The start of the second semester. Placements for the final years are on. The salaries being offered are shooting up in a frenzy. While the senior most people celebrate their fortune, the juniors brag about it to their poor non-IIIT acquaintances. Thus IIIT is about feeling pride.

With the advent of the new year, comes the college fest Felicity. A lot of people are involved in its organisation in one way or the other. The organising batch tries to outperform the previous batch. They talk with companies, contact other colleges, raise expectations and then attempt to fulfil them. Many new ideas are realised and implemented. IIIT is about learning how to manage and being creative.

Soon, the academic year draws to a close. Its time for the farewell. The final years look back over the years. They share their memories and reminiscise about the sweet years spent here. Friends, who saw each other's faces for almost every day of the past four years, part with promises to keep in touch forever. Thus, IIIT is about life-long memories and friendships.

Now for some low downs. The student wakes up early in the morning at 6 to do PT and curses his luck. He desperately wants to sleep but lumbers to the class and sleeps uncomfortably there, all the time his mind railing against the 'demonic attendance rule'. After the class, rushes to the mess for lunch. Partially fills his stomach with what is generally agreed upon as tasteless and nutrientless stuff being passed off as lunch. Plays football in the evening, bruises his leg and complains against the lack of a proper grassy playground. Thus IIIT is also about grumbling and adjusting with what you have.

My institute is the placewhere i spend my four yearsfrom my memory, will never eraseall the joys and the tears

50 people turn up at midnightto wish me on my birthdayIIIT is where i listen to othersand also have my say.

IIIT is where i gain in brainand it is where i lose my hairIIIT is where i feel many a painand also live without a care

IIIT eats up four years of my primeSo, i just hope to have a good time.To ask what IIIT means to me,is like asking what you mean to thee.

Started promisingly and then suddenly found myself devoid of words. Well, here goes the attempt that died a congenital death.

International Institute of Information Technology. When I first heard this name, i felt it was funny. To give such an institute an international tag just to retain the epithet 'IIIT' some how did not sound normal. The first time i came here and noticed the manicured shrubs adorning the roads, I felt that the institute was projecting an air of artficiality. The first time I looked at my hostel, I was enamoured by its shape, *spaciousness* and ventilation. Thus began a wonderful journey.

And then i found that i cannot express anything lucidly. Everything is jumbled up. So ended my essay.

I dont want to sleep in the class tomorrow (technically today). Hence i slept early. Atleast tried to. But woke up after a futile half an hour. And now i fear i will sleep in the classes once again. Why!! Why!! I dont want to sleep in the class!! :((

Thursday, September 01, 2005

A: I never expected to end up here. but now i feel it is one of the best things to have happened to me.B: Really!! I just want to get away from this place as soon as possible.A: Come on, my life was enriched here like never before.

Noo ... this attempt falls flat at its face. Its going nowhere. Guess am not in the mood to be creative now .. sorry dude, maybe we can hash up something in the morning ... But then, why not try once more??

A: I am really happy i ended up here. It has been a cool time here. The years just flew away.B: Really?? I just cant wait to get out of here. Such a critical part of my life has been wasted here !!A: Come on da, kya bol raha hain. IIIT nahin hota, to hum dono kaise milte??C: Thats what na, we are judging the institute by the atmosphere and the students. Lets ask if it has really made us a better person. A: Arent you a better person now than when you came here?C: Yeah, the credit for that lies with the students here, not the institute as such.D: Arent both one and the same?B: Whatever, my main purpose here is getting a decent job. Thats all what matters.C: Kya yaar, what about reeesearch ?? Thats the objective of the institute, not the pays that the students may get.B: Oh yeah, thats why the salary figures are touted at every possible instant.A: However, life here is cool. You cant expect a better life anywhere else.C: I concur.D: Yeah, IIIT has made a huge difference in my life.B: I dont think i am so senti about it. All that i would take from here is a good job. Hopefully.

I guess this attempt is pretty much better. Will it suffice O' organiser?

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Wow, my tab-key is limping back to life, was thinking of getting a new keyboard after it had gone into coma :D. Life is hell in linux without the tab key ... Made me wonder, why only one is provided whereas we have 2 each of shift, cntrl, alt which i think i use less then the '\t'. So google has released its 'Talk'. All the status messages and many blogs now proclaim this fact. I ask 'so what'. It didnt look any great shakes and i felt the gui sucks and it doesnt have smileys!!, but yeah the voice quality is good.

I have done away with the Robocup post. Two more posts about the tour will suffice now. One would be entirely about the events of the last day which was yes quite eventful :D. And the other would be a general Japan details post.

Am going to install windows again on my pc, and hence i had to go rummage for a FC3 cd. Thats the worst thing about Windows. Assuming itself to be the sole worker on the system. Doing some sort of preparation for gre exam. When will we rise above exams?? Thankfully am in this insti where exams arent the primary factor in life....

And all this brings back to prominence the ultimate question - What do I want from life? My simple answer, I dont know. Another major question that is flashing before my eyes these days - Do i want to do a phd?? Yeah, i have no answer for this as well. Simply am lost in the maze of decision making. Well, lets approach it from the other end of the road. What do i dont want?? I dont want to spend my life in a cubicle. I dont want to work in a place where the topmost guy would never have heard of me. I dont want to work in a place which follows a strict schedule. I dont want to be stuck with one thing for too long (like while doing phd??). I dont want to have any reason to grumble about. :) I dont want to lead an unchanging life. I dont want to be doing many other things too, but am not clear about them as yet.

He came pacing to the triviaHe stood at the fork, deliberating,He had to take the decisionwhich prong would he be taking??

Left or right or should he dareto take the middle untrodden one?or should he just go to wherehe had just from come??

With the deadline nearing, he randomly takes leftIt was not a choice but a flingHe felt no responsibility for futureSo his step now had a spring ..

He ran towards his goalOr so he assumed, untilhe reached again the trivialhe has to take decisions still!!

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Am supposed to finish this soon... and i just started. Can write about a lot of things. But also have to make it all relevant, coherent and interesting, and yeah small too. Another major question was, where should i write it. Vim is too drab. Tried openoffice, but it produced the death sentence on my pc (called hanging :P). So i can as well start here. Lets start!!

Multi-Agents is a very interesting field and is particularly useful for simulations and Distributed Intelligence. An Agent is defined as an autonomous entity which senses the environment, analyses its percepts, takes decisions and then acts in that environment. A Multi-Agent System contains many such agents which may cooperate, collaborate or even compete depending on the environment. RoboCup is an international joint venture which promotes research in robotics, AI and multi-agents etc using the two domains called RoboSoccer and RoboRescue (both simulations and involving robots). In RoboSoccer, the team of agents play soccer against another team while in RoboRescue the team of agents need to perform search and rescue operations. The RoboCup competitions are held every year. RoboCup 2005 was held in Osaka, Japan.

The RoboCup Rescue simulation simulates a city which has just suffered an earthquake. Therefore, many buildings would have collapsed, civlians buried under rubble, roads blocked due to the rubble and fires would be raging in many places. This forms the environment for the agents which connect to the server. The agents form the rescue crew who will need to extinguish the fires, clear the roads by removing the blockades and ofcourse rescue the buried civilians. There are three types of agents - Fire Brigade Agents, Ambulance Agents and Police Agents. There also exist three centers i.e Police Station, Fire Station and Ambulance Center which act like communication hubs for the agents. The specified number of each type of agent connect to the server and start acting in the environment. The best way to understand this is to imagine a real city facing the aftermath of an earthquake and the tasks expected of the fire brigades, ambulances and the police of that city. Robocup Rescue is as realistic as that. Each agent can only 'see' or 'hear' upto some limited distance from its position. It has limited speed and can only move on unblocked roads. Hence it wont know where a civilian is buried unless it either hears the cries for help or recieves messages from some other agent conveying the information. The Fire agents can extinguish buildings but they cannot rescue civilians or clear roads. Similarly, ambulances can only unbury and carry civilians to refuges and police can only clear roads. The agents can communicate with each other (like telecommunication in real-life scenario) but the bandwidth is limited and undependable. The job for the teams participating in the Rescue simulation competition is to develop the AI of the agents so that they perform the rescue operations better than other teams. That was precisely my job too. I had to program our Rescue team 'Kshitij' to perform the rescue operations as well as possible.

So, how did the process start? And how did i know about this thing in the first place? Well, I decide to take up honours at the begining of my third year (exactly a year ago :) ) and was interested in AI of the non-linguistics kind. So, the most likely area that was available then in the institute related to Ai other than Ltrc was Multi-Agents of Cde. Found out about Rescue from the official sites, liked it and ended up taking the project. And then did the work go in a planned and effective manner? Nope, not at all. Faced a helluva lot of problems. The 'most major' problem was the lack of documentation of any kind. Rarely was there any way of obtaining some information about the server or the API without actually testing it out by running the simulation. Initially we (then i had two other members also) had some ideas and tried coding the agents from scratch. This went on till dec'04. Being new, i had to find out about every small thing regarding the API by studying the code of the API. A code which had no comments. Most other teams had been participating from 3-4 years and already had a well developed system. However, i finally got the hang of it but then the submission time for the preliminary qualification was dangerously close. And by this time, i was alone in the project. This was when Ravi Jampani came to the rescue (pun intended :P). His immense experience and intelligence helped. Most important was his suggestion to use the basic code of the previous year's winners (a German team). He also wrote the Team Description Paper which was critical for qualification to RoboCup2005. This was in feb'05. We qualified and again I was alone in the project. I was now using the basecode of the previous years winners. Though this meant that i wouldnt have to implement everything, it added the difficulty of understanding their code which was commented in german! Then, it was summer holidays. Now, my whole time was devoted to Rescue. This was also when the server started getting upgraded. The protocols were changed. The fire simulation was greatly modified. The civilian information was made tougher to obtain. Hence, besides implementing the various improvements, i also had to rehaul the whole fire selection mechanism, civilian gathering information etc. Newer versions of the server were being released by them with alacrity. And it was tough keeping up with the pace. Thankful to Yasovardhan who took away the testing burden from me, i managed. And by the end of Jun, we were ready. Then i went to Osaka to participate along with Ravi Sankar and Karteek who were involved with RoboSoccer.

Now, the focus of the story shifts from IIIT, Hyderabad India to Intex, Osaka Japan :D. The RoboCup venue was huge one. Moreover, it was surrounded by the tallest skyscrapers of Osaka. Just imagine :P. RoboCup Rescue consisted of the preliminary round of 3 days (13-15th Jul), semis on 16th and finals on 17th i.e the fifth day. 21 teams qualified for prelims out of which 8 would advance to semis and then four among those would enter the finals.

13th: We had decided to go to the venue a good two hours before the start of the competition. But, we did not have any alarm clock with us! Miraculously, by a quirk of fate, i had my cell with me. So, i set the alarm and we slept peacefully. But it didnt ring. And we reached the venue just in time before the start of the competition! But why didnt it ring? Because - though we were in Japan, my cell still followed IST!! :D. So, I had no time to test my agents on their server. Mine was scheduled as the second team to run. And my agents failed to start!! It was gave some weird errors. So, Kshitij got 0 score in the first map. There were 9 maps in total in the preliminary round. Thankfully, I solved the incompatibility issue before the start of the second map. But i had no time to test on their server. So, time came to run for the second map. The agents connected and started. A sigh of relief. Midway through the run, the fire agents crashed due to paucity of Ram. I hadnt equally distributed the load on both the client computers. I learnt all my lessons by the start of the third round and we ended up 3rd in that map :) (An omen?) We were overall 13th at the end of the day.14th: Went there on time. Tried to start the agents for the 4th map. But they didnt connect!! I have no idea why. Kshitij again got 0. I became so frustrated. Felt anger towards myself, the server guy, the other teams, robocup organisers, the german team, our institute, everyone!! It was sort of intimidating to find the other teams having like 2-3 laptops and team strengths of some 4-6 while we had one laptop for two teams (rescue and soccer3D). Thankfully, a few teams like that of the chairman of RoboCupRescue Simulation were also represented by a single member. At the end of that round however, they called a meeting of all the team leaders and announced that they had run the server of wrong version for this round, hence this map would be rerun again! Wow, I got a reprieve! The ranking of Kshitij on that day for the three maps were - 6th, 4th, 4th. Yeah, it ran on that fourth map and it ran pretty well. Overall ranking: 715th: Now, I was pretty confident. Unless, our agents fail to start, we can easily sail through to the semis. Thats what exactly happened. Rankings for the three maps on that day: 3rd, 3rd, 2nd. Overall ranking: 5. Qualified for Semis.16th: Semi finals. 5 maps were run on this day. Our ranking in each were: 1, 3, 4, 7, 3. Our fireagents were just vacillating on the 4th map, which explains the bad position. Therefore ranking in the semis: 3. Qualified to the finals!17th: Finals. Whopping 9 maps were used. But the relative rankings of the four teams remained pretty much constant. Anyway the individual ranking on each map: 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 1, 3, 2, 3. Overall Ranking: obviously 3.Hence Kshitij (IIIT India) were Third in RoboCup 2005 Rescue Simulation League. click .^:)^

Friday, August 12, 2005

It wont be conveying anything about the subject matter anyway. So, the unique concept of No-computers day was held. Am not sure about its success though. Yeah quite a few people did shut down their computer, headed out of rooms etc. But it has not been the success that would have been liked by the people behind the idea. Yeah, its just 2 now and i have started my computer again, 2 and half hours before schedule :D. I had plans of sleeping in the evening, preparing for gre and many such things but what i did was totally away from these lines. Well, anyhow ...Coming back to the special day, if some big event or atleast many small events had been organised then maybe it would have made more people move away from the intelligent box. Yeah something called cultural night was organised, but i dont think it can qualify as a grand event, atleast not if it is organised in the Old-library seminar hall.... I seriously think the rooms require some unique names. What ever happened to the name-the-hostels drive .... What ever happened to DF !! Whatever will happen to the servers ... with smr quitting and ./nir contemplating the same action ...By the way, one cool thing was that they did not try to enforce the speciality of the day by say shutting down the servers, closing the labs etc. Leaving the choice to the students means that they assume the students to be mature enough. Which is great ... hope that someday they also remove the compulsory 25 day meal system ... :)

Just saw a pic of mine in the first year ... and i just couldnt believe it. I looked like a school kid literally !! Then i used to think it was an exageration when people remarked that i looked like a kid, but now i know it was true .... Hopefully not anymore :D

As a drooping flower,soon to wither away,you were a solitary weeperyour whole world was grey ( this line stolen oops inspired from mltr :D)

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

What a really busy day it has been. Started in the morning after very little sleep and i had been busy until like late evening. Thankfully, the rest of day has been peaceful and relaxing.

Sometime in the afternoon, i was talking with the VJ of SSMusic, His cameraman and other crew were around, we were the only people in the delab, and then this happens:HE barges in, pushing doors making noise. We (I n VJ ) look up. HE: There is a seminar going downstairs, you all go and attend. (he barks at us).I and VJ look at each other bewildered. I wonder why would he want the music channel crew to attend the seminar!!. Vj grasps the situation and repliesVJ: Sir, I am not a student here.I lol in my heart. HE doesnt seem to understand.HE: Go to seminar.. (this time his focus is the guy beside the camera)I: Sir, these people are from SS Music, they have come here to interview.HE: Oh, YOU are student right!! GO to seminar.I go to the seminar and they will what film the empty lab?? With that, thankfully, he goes away with the same buzz that he came in and we resume the conversation. You have to imagine it with the actual accent to understand what i felt then. =))

The template of more than 10 mails i recieved today:"sir, i deleted the mail with my password that you sent me. please send me the login id and pass word"Yeah, i have diligently solved all problems :)

Having to think about what next to write!! Thats against my blogging ethics. So this post ends here.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Yeah, i am back to form i guess, being awake until so late at night that it actually merges into the morning rays.Have a lot to convey, but do not understand what it means. Feel something but cannot place what it is... Had a long discussion with Pranav, but i remember it as a monologue. Am listening to a song but not hearing the lyrics. am shivering but enjoying the cold wind. Am writing a post, but dont know what it is about.I took the first C-programming lab class today. Yeah, am a TA again ... though it was the first tute, it didnt feel anything new. I guessed i really got used to taking lab classes now especially after the rigorous training provided by the previous sem's TAship. Who thought of 'ship' as a way of converting objects into the nouns which depict the abstract notions that the objects are based on. In short, who thought of creating the word 'friendship' from friend ??Its four, time for bed :D

This post took a lot of time and effort ... since my mental faculties have been dulled due to the constant enticement of the soft mattress behind me. And i know i have to blog about the Japan trip ... will blog about it soon, need to get my energies back after two weeks of famished survival.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Today is 16th and a lot of things have happened in between. But i couldnt blog for the following reasons:1. No time to blog.2. No access to net.3. No privacy to blog (i cant type if some one is looking over my shoulder... *turns around to check once more*)4. No patience to blog ... 5. Overwhelmed by the amount that i have to blog about.6. Unfamiliar with Japanese keyboards.etc etc.

Anyways, since i have started now .. with the semis going on .. i guess i will continue. I just cant figure out how to start. what with my mind filled to the brim with experiences of the different kind. Another major problem is that the recent ones are overshadowing the older ones. But i want to list all of them here ... So to make matters simpler .. i ll start from the begining :D. And i shall tell it in present tense as if it all just happened.

10th-Jul: Its near 7 pm. And i am still packing my bag. The plane is at 10 and we are supposed to be at airport by 7. But everything was being delayed on this trip. We got visas on 9th evening, with the envelope torn and the passports wet. Immediately had to withdraw money and rush over to get it converted into Travellers's cheques (in really heavy rain if the hyderabadi readers can remember :d). And guess when we got the tickets ? On Sunday afternoon that is 10July!! It was then that i called my non-iiit friends and informed them of the impending adventure. Anyway, lets get back to airport.Met K and Sha at the airport (My two companions on this trip). (K and Sha is how i called them). Finally entered the airport. It wasnt any great. The baggage passed through that Xray machine with the officials not even concerned. Then we head over to the malaysian airlines officials. Actually we had a big 14 hour stop at KL airport. i wasnt sure what the system was. The travel agent (a bad one at that) had assured that we will be provided a hotel for our stay there (wow!! we had been ready to spend that much time at the airport itself.) But as usual with this agent, a hitch remained. We had to get a voucher. But since that was sunday, he couldnt get it for us. So he asked me contact a person at that malaysian counter. And so i did. That guy assured me that if i go and ask at the visitor's desk in the airport we would be sent to the hotel. I hoped so. Then we went to Immigration check. Our passports had been wet, so the stamp etc had spread over and defaced some pages. Mine was the least affected and K's the most. The immigration guy saw K's passport, refused to accept it and ask K to meet the senior official. That guy was convinced when we showed Sha's and my passport with their varying degrees of pudgings. So we cleared immigration and proceeded to customs. There we inquired about the amount of goods that we can bring back etc etc. After the security check, we ended up at the waiting area with more than an hour to spare for the depature. I was continually getting calls from home and also from K's home (Since he wasnt taking his cell.) I dont know why i was taking mine either, though my brother gave an so-called international sim card i was doubtful whether it would work. Finally at 9:40 they announced that our plane was ready for boarding. So off we went. After walking through a twisted tunnel sort of path, we stepped onto the aircraft. A malaysian airhostess welcomed us in and told us to proceed to our seats. All the cabin crew were malaysian anyway. Before boarding the flight, Sha was telling that if there was any seat beside a gal, he would take it. I stated my preference as an window seat. K was silent. We entered. Mine was a window seat. Sha's was beside me. And K's was at the other end. And guess who was sitting in the seat beside him! So K could enjoy both our preferences. Poor Sha. Soon i will blog about the plane trip.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

This week has been really hectic for me though i didnt have any academic work as such. And today is the day. The first time i would be boarding an aeroplane. The first time i would be going out of the country. This week i had lots of unique experiences. A hurried trip to Chennai that wasnt planned at all. No, Chennai isnt new for me. The hurried one day trip was. A visit to the Consulate for Visa. The whole process of going to another country even for a small time is so complicated. Got the visa today in speed post after frantic efforts. Fought with time to extract money from the atms and convert it into traveler's cheques.Not to forget installing OSs in that laptop, taking printouts of the required documents etc ...So, now we are all set to go. Except a small hitch, the tickets. Need to get them from the agent tomorrow.Also, i shifted my room. Now i will be enjoying 100Mbps lan. More importantly my pc can go back to linux. But i would sure miss the old wing....The rain today has been the heaviest since a long long time...

I will be flying away to Japan soon. Wish me luck. And hope that i return well and sound :D

For the nonplussed readers who may ask why I am going to Japan, refer to the post on March 1st 2005, 7:45am. All my work in this summer culminates in the next week.

All this is going to happen only if i get the proper tickets today morning. Otherwise...

Friday, July 01, 2005

so i am here. At 3 am. In a few hours i will be home again. And after a few days i will be back here again. The vicious cycle will never end. Or maybe it will end after an year? I certainly hope so.Life of Pi. A book that has been inhabiting my room for more than a month. A book that wont take more than a few hours to read. A book that is a well known Booker winner. A book that already half a dozen people have borrowed, read and returned to me. A book that has already been reissued from the library for four times. A book i am yet to read.Attended a FSIS session today. Am quite skeptical of their new hostel-as-house policy. I consider their idea of cramming two boys in a single room outrageous. So do i consider their Masterplan (which has been put up on site in quite an indecipherable pdf). Suddenly, i stopped writing this post and started reading a blog which i used to consider interesting. But the sarcasm in the latest post was so obnoxious that it totally drove me off. It will be quite some time before i return to that one (if ever) Sarcasm, one of my favorite forms of dialogue. No, it is favourite. You know what is the best thing to have happened to American-English? The internet. And ofcourse, M$Word. These are annihilating the poor original British english. Read an article by Thomas Friedman who was talking about the rise of the Irish Economy. Ireland now has the second largest per capita income in Europe after .... Luxemborg!One of the reasons of success other than 'free education', 'embracing globalisation' etc is 'using English'I am going home in a couple of hours. Oh, did i mention that already?? I hope the rescue is complete for now.I am signing off.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Thats how my state of being seems to be. Confused about what? No idea. Just that the whole day i have been doing nothing, seemed capable to do nothing. Lazed around trying to figure what was wrong. The result.. nothing. Why is it that sometimes everything is fine, no troubles, no problems, no tensions, yet you do not feel good. You are surrounded by people, but you seem to be lonely. But no one can tell that anything is wrong because there is no change in your behaviour. Everything is fine but you arent.The playlist comprises of the whole hindi songs directory. Hence, listened to a lot of songs which are actually good that i forgot ever existed that too on my pc.What else ( thats the title of the song currently being played, in hindi ofcourse)Lost into oblivion.Life is good but can be better :)

Thursday, June 16, 2005

This is the third time tonight, that i logged off, with thoughts of going to the hostel, only to return to the lab and sit in front of this pc again. Once it was because, i thought i got an idea to solve the problem. The second time it was because my mind was assaulted with thoughts coercing it to try another trick on that program. The third time had nothing to do with my mind or thoughts, it is the rain which has pushed me back to the lab. But yeah, the weather is awesome, especially after the horrible summer that we had to suffer. So, after a long time, i am blogging in the lab.I actually felt like blogging in the evening, but then it struck me that the blog anniversary must be somewhere around this time. I checked and it turned out to be the next day, i.e today :D.So, thats it, 365 days have passed since i first blogged. Thanks Akshay for introducing me to the Blog-world.Thanks Simeen for giving me various tips.Thanks Pati for popularising my blog.Thanks Rastogi for idolising my blog :D.Ofcourse, thanks all readers for wasting your time reading my ramblings.Hey, wait a minute, why should i thank the readers ?? Shouldnt it be the other way round?? Shouldnt they thank me for maintaining this wonderful blog that provided them with that most useful way to waste time when they were too bored to do anything else?? After all the thanks are exchanged, ... lets continue. Thats where this post was saved as draft. This is the first time that a post was not finished in one sitting. The break came because Su was good enough to come to lab to pick me up and take me to the hostel on a bike. Hence, Thanks Su :)More than required grtitude for one year; this post ends here.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

First time when it was suggested, i brushed it off as a joke. But then the nagging began. "how will it make any difference to you?", "Just want to know about your health." blah blah yak yak. Finally i gave in. Thought that i would just enjoy the experience. And so we went to a city-renowned palmist. Yes, a Palmist. I often felt that the theory of how-the-lines-on-your-palm-tell-your-future is much better than how-the-stars-in-the-heavens-predict-your-future. And this particular exponent of the former theory is apparently quite popular going by the queue that was waiting for his audience. Since, his place was quite near our house, we took our token, rested at home and came back to that 'palm-house' at just the right time.

My turn came, we entered after 'removing our footwear'. He was around 50, corpulent and domineering. (All the conversation has been translated from telugu to english)He: Are you studying?Me: Yes, Engineering.I tenderly offered my right palm, he just glanced at it before he started off on his list of insinuations. He: Why are you losing interest in your studies ??Me: (bewildered!! what!! wanted to reply(WTR): i havent the faintest clue what the hell you are talking. True, i havent been studying much, but i am managing pretty well) Reply: erm...coughHe: You are depressed and have lost interest in studies.Me: (depressed!! I havent been more jollier in my life!! WTR: dude, get ur facts right) Reply: cough... no (a squeak)He: I am asking youAll this while, he has been scratching on my palm with his reynolds pen, highlighting the lines and curves on my beautiful palm. He ended up making it look ghastly.And then, relief came in the form of a courier service, who came to deliver a credit card. He wanted a signature and the Pan number or passport number etc. Our man did not even bother to get up. He signed, wrote his telephone number and asked the courier guy to be content with it. The courier guy persisted saying that telephone number wont do, Pan number, Pan number. Our guy joked saying, "Do you people really need the proof of my existence, dont you know me?". Our man brusquely brushed away the poor courier guy and resumed the study of my palm. By this time, i had got back my senses, and wanted to get the hell out of there. He continued...He: Health is totally fine. Me: (WTR: If there is any problem with me, that comes under health. Shall i show my medical report and prove it to you?? Get something right dude!! ) Reply: /:) (raised eyebrow.)My escort: But, will his health be all right??He: Its totally fine. The problem is his depressed mind.Me: (WTR: Now, you accuse me of being a psychosomatic!!!) Reply: Stoic SilenceHe: You have chances of going abroad in the near future. Me: (gloating. well, he is bound to get something right afterall.) Reply: Straight FaceHe: You may fall into troubles relating to love.Me: (WTR: Come on, get real. I dont even have a love-life.. is that the trouble you are talking about?) Reply: /:)He magically produced a ring from nowhere, and put it on my finger. I wanted to snatch it off immediately, but i waited till i was out of his sight. I finally left shaking my head in disbelief at this strange ordeal.

Saturday, June 04, 2005

blogging has been quite infrequent in these holidays. Just four posts in the month of may :o. But, how does it matter :)My mind is quite alert and happy to be awake. My eyes pain as if some thorns have replaced those cones in the retina. Eyes, that reminds me of spectacles. 12 years, from the time they opened in this world (hindi filmy??) my eyes had been sharp and great. Many times, i had been summoned to search for that fallen minute thing on the floor, an earring, a screw etc etc. Then, i found the world around me getting blurred gradually. In that unlucky 13th year of my life, i got my spectacles, with powerful lens, -3. Yeah, in my case the eye-lens-power saga started from -3. Many people may strive for years yet not reach this coveted figure. But i kick-started from there, and now have doubled it, almost. These 8 years, the spects have become an inherent part of me. Travelled through all those shapes, huge rectagles, oval, large rectangles, squarish, thin rectangular, plastic lens ... never tried those darkening ones though. Well, the thorns, i mean the cones are intensifying their protest, i better heed their cries. Keep the spectacles on the table, jump into the bed and sleep another fitful sleep.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

With ref to this post Am supposed to answer a few questions. So lets start.

1. Total number of films I own on dvd/video:A. Me!! Owning stuff?? Must be kidding. Btw, i think there are some cds/videos at home, i dont remember of what :D

2. The last film I bought:A. Refer to the answer above.

3. The last film I watched:A. Star Wars - Episode 3 - Revenge ... in theatre, Fight Club on pc (couldnt finish due to 'unforseen circumstances'), Mass on Tv (yeah, I survived #:-S)

4. Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:A. Shrek Sixth Sense Life is Beautiful Forrest Gump Dil Chahta hai Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (:D oops, this makes it six)

5. Tag five people and have them put this in their blog:A. Now this is tough. I can tag them, but will they even consider it? Also, can we tag people who are already tagged (though it wont serve any purpose) ?? Anyway, here go the five people - persephonemy friendly sageM$ guyand so on and so forth :D

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Because. i am extremely bored. Just spent half an hour doing nothing at all, just staring at the wall. With no thought occupying my mind, atleast none survived for any considerable length of time. So, thought why not let the fingers do the thinking. Something regarding the blogger.com has been bothering me for a long time. Why arent they updating the stats? It still stays that i have 48 posts, am pretty sure reaching 100 now. The last post that is shown in a person's profile is one written around Dec04! I wish for another thunderstorm.

Faint, faint, just a little whisperslowly, slowly, it is getting richerforever, forever, the pitch increasingbut i wonder, wonder who is singing

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Am back from home after another brief sojourn. Unlike many priveleged, i dont have a pc at home. And going to an internet cafe is one of the worst tortures you can inflict upon yourself. They with their cramped surroundings, windows 98 with a 800x600 resolution and no browser other than iexplorer. They remind me of my early lab-1 days here. Yeah, the pcs arent much different. And so so slow! And the pc which had the ip 172.16.1.2 was somewhat a special one. Yeah it belonged to me and another guy. The only pc in that lab to have a 4GB harddisk. All others had 2GB. :D Now, now dont get envious, you dont know the full story yet. That was a pc in which windows must have been installed almost on a weekly basis. Forget linux. It was an achievement to get windows running on it. Many a time, once the os was succesfully installed and the pc seemed to be sort of working, my dear pc-partner used to discover some viruses in some files and duly delete them. Many a time, it happened that those files were critical for the os to run. And the unwary me, would come to lab, switch on the cpu, wait for an hour for it to boot, diligently stare at those welcome screens, and just when it is supposed to show the task bar, the whole screen would go blank, and i am presented with this message - "Its now safe to turn your computer off" :-s.

Well before going home, i had these visions of relaxing for four days, regroup my energies and come back with a refreshed soul. Now that, those four days have passed and i am back here, i wonder what happened. I dont feel a lil bit of difference between me-'four days back' and me-now. Spent all the time at home either sleeping or watching movies on tv.

One night, was reading some magazine sitting in front of the tv when i heard the words lion and cheetah in the same sentence. Looked up to see a programme on animal planet. A cheetah was trying to distract a lion, (according to the narrator) and it seemed so. But why? The cheetah could only go that much near the lion and the lion would just roar it away. The lion was searching for something and the cheetah was trying to hinder the search. Nope, not for prey, lion was searching for the cheetah cubs, and the cheetah mother trying to lead the lion in the wrong way. Finally the lion found one cub, killed it, and went in search for another. The cheetah was helplessly standing a little away. Another cub becomes a victim and finally the lion goes away. The cheetah then goes to check if any of her litter survived the lion-onslaught. Yep, two did. two died. And why did the lion kill the cubs? Strangling the competition before it became real. It didnt want too many cheetah eating into the available prey in the area. Now we know whom to blame for the decreasing cheetah population.Saw another similar programme which was about a group of lion cubs trying their claw at hunting. It was pretty funny. In one incident, the cubs some 5-6 of them chance upon a bunch of monkeys walking on the ground. And the hunt starts. One particular cub chased a monkey, which climbed the first available tree. The cub thought it was a kitten and followed the monkey. But it only went up half the distance that it started sliding and fell in an haphazard way on the ground. Now the monkey was the boss. It started throwing twigs and stuff at the cub, who had to retreat unable to bear the onslaught from above. In another incident, the group of cubs tried to attack a herd of buffaloes. But they really regretted their choice. A buffalo with its large horns turned around and started chasing the lions-cubs. It was so funny, the buffalo coming after the cubs. It really frightened them, finally the mother had to come to drive the buffalo away.

Facing the imminent danger that i may keep blabbering, i publish-post and logout.

Friday, May 06, 2005

A rare date. A rare day. A day when i finally started doing something useful. Had spent a month with the intention of doing it, finally found the right auspicious day to start. Hope it doesnt fetter out. :)After a long time, i am blogging in windows. Forced to do it. Wlan no longer works in my Fc3 :((. They have implemented Wep keys, and now my card doesnt associate with the ap. Someday, i will regroup my energy and try afresh to make it work. But as of now, its Windows time for fame. Californication is starting to play again now, repeating for the 15th time. Got to add to the playlist. Quite a boring post this is turning out to be. Bear with it, O' dedicated readers. :P

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Randomly hit the keys of the keyboard. Thats something i do when i am really frustrated. I am sick of myself. I am a complete loser.Reaction: "What! how can u say that. u r soo good blah blah yaak yaak ....Trust me people, i am just a phony guy who fakes very well.I am not frustrated because of any particular reason. A lot of factors have contributed to it.I want to rehaul a lot of things. But i wont do it. I cant. It will continue and it will all be rosy in the end, hence it wouldnt matter then. As i was saying, i am currently sick of myself. Anyway out?? All suggestions other than those involving the loss of my life are welcome.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

This is summer. Hyderabad summer. So its hot. Not comfortable to sleep even at 1 in the night. The only way to cool your room is to open the door and usher in the fresh cool air. As every cloud has a silver lining, ever gust of wind has some embedded mosquitoes in it. Its not that i am against insect life. But the world would have been a calmer place had these insectia minded their own business. But these under-developed beings are quite curious about humans. Actually the mosquitoes suck. Suck the human blood for their experiments. But they have an hidden agenda too. They seem to be nocturnal beings. And their collective aim seems to convert poor innocent homosapiens like me into their kind. No, not into insects but into nocturnals. As soon as you lie on the bed, and switch off the light, they set to task and start all their sucking experiments (all puns intended). Why allow them into your room in the first place you may ask. But unless, you invite these, your room's temperature isnt going to be pleasant. But once these are in, you can forget all chances of attaining the goal of holidays - sleep. So, you are going to be awake anyway. After a few hours, before the sun is about to wake, the mosqis return to their haven, and i can visit my heaven for a few hours before the noon-day door-bangings begin. What a lame guy, losing his sleep over a few mosqis. Before you leap to any such conclusions, read on. Jet mat. The only guy affected by its aroma is me. So, then the great war begins. Observe the flight, analyse the curve, learn from the previous sorties of the mosqi, wait for the oppurtune moment to strike. Notice! the mosqi is within reach, the mosqi is slowing down, out shoots the hand to capture the intruder. Succesful you may have been, but before you even have a chance to gloat, you are faced with a flying threesome. You win another battle. But the numbers dont decrease. After exhausting yourself, you sit for some time, only to chance upon a new batallion flying all around you. Raise the white flag. Huddle in front of your dear pc, and type down your miseries.

I am blogging now just because i havent blogged in some time now. Actually dont at all feel like blogging these days. Nothing to be frustrated or bored of. Not required to do anything. So cant postpone something by blogging (instead of doing that task). Since am comfortably leading a calm peaceful lazy life, nothing to blog about. What a leisurely life!!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

The sole aim of this post is to expend my frustration. Better read the post below if you have come here to appreciate my writing style... :D

ElectionRe-electionRe-Election NullifiedAnother Re-election to be held in the next sem.

I guess this is just half the story. Who knows how many more re-elections we are going to have before they are finally satisified with the elections. They here solely refers to the Ec and the Slc. What the HELL do they think of themselves??I really wanted to reply to them. But had to restrain myself, whats the point in spammimg? Already two people have put the grievences pretty well. I expect the Ec answers them soon. Otherwise, they are going to get lot of hatemails. If anyone has a misconception that things can get better at IIIT, then well, you have a misconception. Things only seem to get worse. (Except the Canteen though, it rocks as of now.) Dont the Ec realise that they are responsible to the students? Particularly the contestants? First of all, on the evening i.e the end of the first elections, they cancelled the election. And everyone knew of the various leads etc. A lot of politics may have been played on that night. Then they held elections on the next day, the day of the Farewell. Only this time, they did not discover any bugs at the last minute. Hence they withheld the results. Slowly, anyhow the results have leaked out. Now everyone knows who won, so they nullify the election. What the Hell!!!Malpractices!! What practices? The most number of malpractices seem to be done by the Ec. Actually, most of it is not Ec's fault . The Ec is just a worker for the Slc. Any decision of the Ec is basically a decision of the Slc. If malpractices are a problem, what ever was the Slc doing during the last elections? What happened then are called Malpractices. Those things are called intimidating voters blah blah. This time we had vigorous campaigning, Yes. Sometimes the campaigning bent and maybe broke some rules. Yes. But none of these are serious enough to repeat the whole process again. Silly us, we took care not to break any rule. We should have done all sorts of campaigning, broken all code of conduct etc. At max, what they would have done is another re-election. They put down some ambiguous statements as rules, interpret the rules in some way and expect everyone else to have the same interpretation somehow magically. They plan to re held the re-elections at the start of the next sem. Do they expect the graduating people to come to IIIT and vote, or even login from wherever and vote? 1/3rd of the current voters are no longer going to vote. I wonder how many of the remaining would vote either. Why should anyone, when the probability of the re-elections again is so high! And, Who the Hell is going to apolozise for wasting my time for so many days!! Do they even have an iota of an idea, how much effort the contestants have put in? What do they know about the time and effort taken to select the team, come up with the agenda, fight against the mis-information campaign, And Campaign!! Tell them to try to convince me why Re-elections are required. We had to convince hundreds of people why they should vote for us. Do they think, we are profited in some manner if we become MPs? This is not a pay thing. And there wont be any kick-backs either. Whoever is contesting is doing that either with genuine interest in doing something for the campus, take up some responsiblity, bring some change or else have some fun by coming out of hibernation (This is applicable in some cases). Is this the Slc way of having 'Selection' through 'Election'? Keep having elections until the appropriate guy in your opinion wins??

"This mail is to inform the student community regarding nullification of Elections that were held on 30th March due to complaints received regarding malpractices."The next time you do not like the way results the going to turn out, just make some complaints. They will nullify the elections.

"Fresh elections will be held under closely supervised conditions during the first week of the next academic year."Closely supervised conditions!! What are they going to do? Put us contestants under room arrest or something??

"The candidates for SP councils will remain the same and no new nominations will be invited."How can they assume that the contestants would still be interested in participating in this fiasco of a process called Elections?? What about new nominations to the Ec. I guess that is the most basic requirement as of now. And i guess, i dont need to start about the Slc now, everyone must have an idea of tHEiR visions.

I wanted to write a post on Campaining. How and how not to do it. Guess, some other day, when and if the fiasco ends.

Warning: Do not talk about elections if you meet me in person. I am not going to waste any more time on it.

PS: One good thing, Though having (unofficially) won the elections (despite not being the favourites), we dont need to fulfil our agenda (though we showed that we can do it).